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Homo Sacer (125th Iridos Auxilla)
The truth of Homo Sacer lays somewhere between the glorious and the damned. They were an independent unit of ab human specialists, active sometime after the Tyrannic Wars, who acted with infamous skill as agents of Imperium. They were ostensibly a unit from the Imperial Guard’s Militarum Auxilla though they were at time attached to other organization. Their legacy is a colored one; their many victories often coming at great costs and their glory denied to them by virtue of their abhuman nature. The are famous for going into situations with all the tools to complete the objective, getting decimated, and still managing to pull victory from the fire. Designation and Organization Formally, they were designated as the “125th Iridos Auxilla”, though they only incidentally served on Iridos IV once and the designation was retrospective. The term "Auxilla" gave them almost no predefined structure or size for their unit, though they were generally 1-5 squads in size, and allowed them to be allocated to wherever they were most wanted. They were most commonly referred to as a “squad” on Imperial ledgers. Unit Name “Homo sacer” is High Gothic for "the sacred man" or "the accursed man". It is actually a legal term that means a person who is banned and may be killed by anybody, but may not be sacrificed in a religious ritual. Key Members The roster of Homo Sacer has changed frequently over time as they suffered regular, heavy, losses. The following were the key members of the auxilla with their highest rank they held while serving in said unit being recorded next to their name. Master Sergeant Quintus Zama: Master Sergeant Quintus Zama: The leader of the Homo Sacer was a Gland War Veteran, fresh out of the war. He was noted to be subdued, introspective, devilishly intelligent, and cunning in an almost cruel way that he only used against the foes of The Emperor. He had a strong sense of duty, a healthy respect for danger, and a will to live that is generally not seen in Gland War Veterans. His genius was genuine and, had he not been converted to fight the Tyranids, he might have risen to high ranks in the Imperium. Still, he kept to himself and only really shared his thoughts with Sgt. Oldshine. His unmatched leadership and quick thinking was the core of the squad and, after he finally fell, the squad was never the same. Sgt. Wrathom “Tin Can” Butterbur: A ratling sniper who was as round as he was conniving. The meanest ratling who ever lived. He was old as an forgotten ration bar when he joined up and managed to stay alive for long enough to spawn 46 children. Back on his homeworld of Green Meadow there is a town called Butterholm that was named after him, on account of his descendants being the majority inhabitants of the town. Sgt. Oldshine Örvar-Oddr: Oldshine was a Squat mechanic who kept the squad’s only transport, a chimera, up and running. He’d sworn vengeance on the tyranids and his hatred for them was shared by Master Sergeant Zama. The two were inseparable and formed the core of the squad. He met his fate when Big Mog had his little psychic incident. It’s said that after Oldshine died the squad was never the same again. He and Quintus were the first to serve in the squad and after his legendary career was cut short by death the decline of the squad was imminent. Oldshine was the heart of the squad; offering advice to those who would take it and jamming it down the throats of those who wouldn’t. The Mog Twins: Lovingly nicknamed “Fatty 1 and Fatty 2” these twin Orgyn served as the unit’s primary heavy weapon combatant. Fatty 1 died three campaigns in and Fatty 2, re-dubbed “Big Mog”, awakened latent psychic powers in secret and eventually destroyed himself (and three other squad members) in an uncontrolled warp incident during the next campaign. Corporal Serena Martínez: A longshanks pilot that served as the transport pilot for most of the squad’s operations. Due to her inability to survive on worlds with gravity higher than her own she wore an environmental suit while in flight on most worlds. She was noted for her exceptional combat skill in zero gravity, even above that of your typical longshank. These skills came in handy when the squad encountered Space Hulk Megalith. She was the last of the Homo Sacers to die, living far beyond any of them. She eventually gained the rank of “Captain”, though with the odd distinction of that rank only existing within ships assigned to the Militarum Auxilla. Corporal Deckard “Lucky” Novis: Deckard was an albino super soldier who, unbeknownst to his comrades, was the result of early Afriel Strain experimentation. His unprecedented skill at arms was matched only by his atrocious luck. By the time of his 4th campaign he’d been so patched up that he was legally defined as a cyborg. He died after expertly pitching a plasma grenade into a heretic’s pillbox from 600 feet away. While successful, a spike of rebar was blown back from the resulting explosion and impaled him to a nearby wall though the skull. Lt. Liddia Quamp: A high and mighty pelager from Talassar who was assigned as the squad’s first officer. She was executed for cowardice during her first engagement. The record does not clearly state who. It was later decided, in an unrelated investigation, that Homo Sacer best be left with as little oversight as possible (outside a commisar). Zorina Evdokiya Aleksandrovna, Psyker Tertius: A Delta-level felinid psyker who served as the squad’s primary psyker. She had a heavy addiction to the drug obscura that she tried to hide. While an effective battle-psyker she was unpleasant to be around and the rest of the squad found her deeply disgusting. She eventually was consumed in Big Mog’s psychic ouburts as she tried to calm his mind. Brother Michael “Friend” Hellespont: An unfortunate Ministorum priest who was assigned to minister to the Homo Sacers. Most of our first hand accounts of their action was recorded by him, though he only managed to survive two campaigns. The order he was from had a practice of drinking a foul smelling hot liquid as it was believed that mildly noxious toxins would purify the body. After his death at the hands of an ork he was fondly remembered and the squad renamed their chimera “Hellespont’s Tea” after him and his infamous drink. Not Shamrock: Despite what others may claim, the 125th Iridos Auxilla did NOT contain a shamrock member. They are fake and don't exist. Foundation The creation of Homo Sacer was not intended and came together like a jigsaw puzzle. The following events were key to the foundation of Homo Sacer: Tyrannic Wars/Mobek IV: After the Tyrannic Wars Quintus Zama, a gland war veteran, and Oldshine Örvar-Oddr, a squat engineer who’d been offworld when his people had been destroyed, ended up on the same detail on the isolated moon of Mobek IV. Their legendary defeat of a ork raiding party earned the two abhumans special commendation after their comrades mostly died in the first wave of attacks. The Bloodfields: A Militarum Auxilla regiment was decimated down to a handful of squads while in battle with a heretical legion. The only survivors were two ogryn (The Mog Twins), a rattling Sergeant named Butterbur, and two squads of penal legionaries. With just these forces the remains of the Militarum Auxilla regiment stalled the enemy’s overwhelming numbers of two years before a relief force arrived. The remaining penal legionaries were shot and the abhumans were shipped off to the next world where they’d surely die. 2nd Battle of Iridos IV: An abhuman regiment was assigned to the 1st Battle of Iridos IV. The assignment went FUBAR and, while fighting off an alien horde, some of the remnants of the Militarum Auxilla found themselves working together. Hunkering down in a bunker Quintus Zama, Oldshine Örvar-Oddr, the Mog Twins, and Wrathom Butterbur found themselves outnumbered by the xenos invaders. They were able to jury rig an improvised explosive out of farming equipment and a damaged chimera that allowed them to break the enemy’s line and kill their leader. This “leader” was apparently had some biological or mental function for the rest of the aliens and with its defeat the aliens withdrew. The group was assigned together as the “125th Iridos Auxilla” and assigned a rag-tag group of rejected abhuman soldiers. Notable Engagements Yenit Incident: While the majority of information on the affair was redacted, it involved a Planet Eater and is noted for being the campaign that the local Imperial Guard commander thought it wise to assign Lt. Liddia Quamp as an officer to oversee the squad. It is unclear how or why she was summarily executed, but it happened during this campaign. The only reason given was “incompetence”. Purge of Easthill: A breeding den of felstalkers had developed in a ratling community. Homo Sacer was dispatched along with other Imperial Forces, spearheaded by the 1st Neo-Jerionite Regiment, to destroy the city down to the last abhuman. Sgt. Butterbur was never the same after Easthill, purging his own kind. Still, he served with special distinction there, counter-sniping dozens of felstalkers. Hordes of Vokmor: When a Auxilla regiment, composed almost entirely of beastmen, fell to chaos and went on a rampage the Imperium thought it only fitting to deploy other Militarum Auxilla assets to combat them (After all, abhumans needed to clean up their own mess). Homo Sacer was deployed, along with other elements of the Militarum Auxilla and a penal regiment, to clean up the mess. It was, of course, a trap and daemons poured from the warp as reinforcements to overrun the Imperial assets. Only when Inquisitor Grace Parmenion, an Ordo Xenos inquisitor, arrived with reinforcements (most notably elements of the Yoddha space marine chapter) were the forces of the Imperium able to make a pyrrhic victory. The planet, once a Hiveworld, was reduced to rubble by the engagement but the scourge of Chaos had been purged. Homo Sacer was instrumental in the victory, having found a way to flood the planes of the capital city with nerve gas and having killed a Chaos Sorcerer of Tzeentch. Battle of Blood Bridge: During a campaign on an industrial world against an onslaught by the Deathskulls ork clan a key bridge needed to be held and Homo Sacer was assigned to hold it for a week. Two days in and the garrison assigned to support them fled in terror and eighty four days later help finally arrived. They are said to have killed over 600 orks, two traitorous guardsmen, and drank the entirety of the considerable stockpile of the garrison's beer while doing so. For their gallant efforts three of them were court martialed for unnecessary expenditure of Imperial foodstuffs but only one was executed. Master Sergeant Quintus Zama.jpg|Master Sergeant Quintus Zama, Gland War Veteran Sgt. Wrathom “Tin Can” Butterbur.jpg|Sgt. Wrathom “Tin Can” Butterbur, Rating Dwarven sniper sketch by anghorkheng d73qo4q-fullview.jpg|Sgt. Oldshine Örvar-Oddr, Squat Engineer Corporal Deckard “Lucky” Novis.jpg|Corporal Deckard “Lucky” Novis, Afriel Strain Supersoldier